Leviticus 4:22

For the Leader

4:22 “‘Whenever ¹  a leader, by straying unintentionally, ²  sins and violates one of the commandments of the Lord his God which must not be violated, ³  and he pleads guilty,

Leviticus 11:45

11:45 for I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, ⁴  and you are to be holy because I am holy.

Leviticus 19:14

19:14 You must not curse a deaf person or put a stumbling block in front of a blind person. ⁵  You must fear ⁶  your God; I am the Lord.

Leviticus 19:25

19:25 Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. ⁷  I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:31-32

19:31 Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits ⁸  to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God. 19:32 You must stand up in the presence of the aged, honor the presence of an elder, and fear your God. I am the Lord.

Leviticus 19:36

19:36 You must have honest balances, ⁹  honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. ¹⁰  I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 21:7-8

21:7 They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, ¹¹  nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, ¹²  for the priest ¹³  is holy to his God. ¹⁴  21:8 You must sanctify him because he presents the food of your God. He must be holy to you because I, the Lord who sanctifies you all, ¹⁵  am holy.

Leviticus 21:17

21:17 “Tell Aaron, ‘No man from your descendants throughout their generations ¹⁶  who has a physical flaw ¹⁷  is to approach to present the food of his God.

Leviticus 23:28

23:28 You must not do any work on this particular day, ¹⁸  because it is a day of atonement to make atonement for yourselves ¹⁹  before the Lord your God.

Leviticus 25:55

25:55 because the Israelites are my own servants; ²⁰  they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

¹ tn This section begins with the relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (’asher) which usually means “who” or “which,” but here means “whenever.”

² tn See the Lev 4:2 note on “straying.”

³ tn Heb “and does one from all the commandments of the Lord his God which must not be done”; cf. NRSV “ought not to be done”; NIV “does what is forbidden in any of the commands.”

⁴ tn Heb “to be to you for a God.”

⁷ tn Heb “You shall not curse a deaf [person] and before a blind [person] you shall not put a stumbling block.”

⁸ tn Heb “And you shall fear.” Many English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV) regard the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) as adversative in force here (“but”).

¹⁰ tn Heb “to add to you its produce.” The rendering here assumes that the point of this clause is simply that finally being allowed to eat the fruit in the fifth year adds the fruit of the tree to their harvest. Some take the verb to be from אָסַף (’asaf, “to gather”) rather than יָסַף (yasaf, “to add; to increase”), rendering the verse, “to gather to you the produce” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 260, and see the versions referenced in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306). Others take it to mean that by following the regulations given previously they will honor the Lord so that the Lord will cause the trees to increase the amount of fruit they would normally produce (Hartley, 303, 306; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

¹³ sn The prohibition here concerns those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular (i.e., familiar spirits; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 321, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 134). Cf. Lev 20:6 below.

¹⁶ tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.

¹⁷ sn An ephah is a dry measure which measures about four gallons, or perhaps one third of a bushel, while a hin is a liquid measure of about 3.6 liters (= approximately 1 quart).

¹⁹ tn Heb “A wife harlot and profaned they shall not take.” The structure of the verse (e.g., “wife” at the beginning of the two main clauses) suggests that “harlot and profaned” constitutes a hendiadys, meaning “a wife defiled by harlotry” (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 143, as opposed to that in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 343, 348; cf. v. 14 below). Cf. NASB “a woman who is profaned by harlotry.”

²⁰ sn For a helpful discussion of divorce in general and as it relates to this passage see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 143-44.

²¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²² tn The pronoun “he” in this clause refers to the priest, not the former husband of the divorced woman.

²² tn The three previous second person references in this verse are all singular, but this reference is plural. By adding “all” this grammatical distinction is preserved in the translation.

²⁵ tn Heb “to their generations.”

²⁶ tn Heb “who in him is a flaw”; cf. KJV, ASV “any blemish”; NASB, NIV “a defect.” The rendering “physical flaw” is used to refer to any birth defect or physical injury of the kind described in the following verses (cf. the same Hebrew word also in Lev 24:19-20). The same term is used for “flawed” animals, which must not be offered to the Lord in Lev 22:20-25.

²⁸ tn Heb “in the bone of this day.”

²⁹ tn Heb “on you [plural]”; cf. NASB, NRSV “on your behalf.”

³¹ tn Heb “because to me the sons of Israel are servants.”